Eggs Are in Short Supply — STEM Workers Are Not

Immigration advocates insist there is a “shortage” of workers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Elon Musk famously aired this claim during an intra-MAGA dust-up back in December, but it’s not new. As Howard University Professor Ron Hira has observed, “unsubstantiated claims that there is a significant shortage of STEM talent” date back decades. It’s an evergreen talking point in service of more immigration.

Of course, no “shortage” of labor should exist in a market economy where prices are free to change. In the case of a greater demand for (or a lower supply of) STEM workers, employers should be willing to pay a higher wage, which then incentivizes more workers to enter the STEM field.

In fact, wage trends are the best means available for testing whether the demand for STEM labor is outstripping supply at all. If the technology sector were as desperate for STEM workers as advocates insist, then compensation would soar as employers competed to recruit and retain scarce talent. However, as the Center has shown in numerous reports, real (inflation-adjusted) compensation has been essentially flat. No desperation is evident.

Contrast the market for STEM labor with the market for a popular commodity that has also been in the news lately: eggs. No one doubts that eggs are in short supply right now due to an outbreak of avian flu. News stories about frustrated grocery shoppers abound.

Figure 1 illustrates the problem. The brown line represents the real price of eggs relative to the price in 2010. One year ago, the price of eggs was about the same as it was in 2010. By January 2025, however, the price was 89 percent greater. A similar spike occurred in 2023, when the price increased to 95 percent above its 2010 level. Both of these increases followed avian flu outbreaks that temporarily reduced supply.

Figure 1. Proportional Change in Real Prices Over Time (year 2010 = 100)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Egg prices are monthly. STEM worker compensation is annual through 2023.

Now examine Figure 1’s green line, which represents real compensation (inflation-adjusted wages and benefits) for STEM workers relative to their compensation in 2010.¹ Notice the difference? After increasing slightly at the end of the last decade, compensation has declined to about the same level as in 2010. Where is the “shortage” of STEM workers to be found in this figure? Where is the big rise in compensation due to demand outstripping supply? It’s easy to see where the demand for eggs exceeds supply, but for STEM workers there is no such evidence.

To continue the comparison, imagine that grocers currently have lots of eggs in stock that they choose not to sell. Eggs take up shelf space, after all, and maybe there are other items that the stores would rather place there. Does that sound unlikely at a time of record-high egg prices? It should, and yet an analogous behavior is common in the market for STEM labor. As Figure 2 shows, 9.7 million U.S. residents with STEM degrees worked in non-STEM jobs in 2023, and an additional 2.2 million had no job at all.

Figure 2. STEM Degree-Holders Who Are Not Working STEM Jobs (in millions)

Source: 2023 American Community Survey.

When millions of STEM-trained individuals are not working STEM jobs, it’s hard to believe any tales of “shortage”. Perhaps a comparison with eggs — an actual case of low supply right now — will finally make this evergreen talking point wither.

End Note

¹ The source of annual STEM compensation is the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) dataset, which is produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Although the BLS does not generally publish ECEC data on STEM workers specifically, we obtained the data through 2023 from BLS via a custom request. The ECEC data has a high level of accuracy and comprehensiveness because it is collected directly from employers. The data is especially helpful in analyzing employee benefits, which are almost impossible to measure in large surveys of individual workers.